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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22866037">Friend on the Other Side</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arkhaline/pseuds/Arkhaline'>Arkhaline</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Good Morning From Hell, Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M, Gen, Hell, Major character already dead, Mentions of Death, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Rating May Change</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 06:20:23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,579</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22866037</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arkhaline/pseuds/Arkhaline</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>It had been about five months since Chris had died, and life around Rooster Teeth just wasn't the same anymore. Everyone was grieving when not in front of a camera, but it was getting a little bit easier every day. However, when RT Core gets a letter advising the crew to listen to a podcast known as "Good Morning From Hell", they find themselves on a mission to find out what exactly happened to Chris Demarais.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Barbara Dunkelman &amp; Blaine Gibson, Chris Demarais &amp; Blaine Gibson, Chris Demarais &amp; Clayton Fer, Trevor Collins/Barbara Dunkelman</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Friend on the Other Side</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Things were finally starting to go back to normal again. It had been a few months at this point, and pulling up to stage five was starting to become a little less painful. Barb closed the door to her car, laughing with Trevor as he walked her to her building.</p><p>The rest of RT Core was already sitting on the couches, reviewing the premise for their next RT Life. The sound of Mariel’s laughter rang around the corner as Barb bid her boyfriend goodbye with a hug and a quick wave, but the sound wasn’t quite the same. It hadn’t been for several months.</p><p>As she approached the couches, she cast a quick glance towards what had been Chris’ office as she had every day since. It had been maybe five months since he had died under mysterious circumstances, and the effects could be felt throughout the company. RT Core had been putting out content, but when not in front of the camera, they were a lot more solemn. Blaine hardly ever spoke for anything not related to his videos. Even Achievement Hunter and Funhaus acted differently; everyone had loved Chris.</p><p>Barb shook herself back to reality and looked up to her coworkers with a smile. No one questioned her odd behavior. She took a seat next to Jon, who passed her a coffee with a silent smile, and she took it gratefully. On this particular day, they were planning a blind taste-testing challenge, and Andrew was helping Chad come up with some of the most delicious and disgusting options possible.</p><p>“Alright, I think we have everything set,” said Chad, clapping his hands together as he turned to face the rest of RT’s employees. “I just need to go to the store to get some stuff, and we’ll be good.” </p><p>“Great! RT Inbox is scheduled first, but then we’ll get that going,” replied Jessica. Chad nodded, grabbing his phone as he headed toward the door. Barb headed over to the RT inbox, with Jon, Blaine, Jessica, and Mariel joining her shortly after. They all took a seat as Jon opened the show.</p><p>It was another Inbox full of them being generally insane, and soon the entire building could hear the echoes of their laughter. Even Blaine was livelier than usual, which brought up everyone’s mood.</p><p>Towards the end of the show, Barb opened a letter from a fan who had been watching their content for years. They said that the main reason they were writing, though, was because of a new podcast they had discovered called <em> Good Morning from Hell </em>. They didn’t mention any more details, but the desperation with which they begged they listen to it was a bit concerning. The Core members exchanged a glance before moving on and wrapping up the show, silently agreeing to just cut that bit from the final product.</p><p>The day went by like any other. The taste-testing challenge was absolutely repulsive, but everyone found themselves crying with laughter by the end. Well, except for Christina, who was retching violently into a trash can as Chad triumphantly whooped from the corner. After everyone cleaned up, they retreated to their offices to work on scripting, editing, and whatever else they had on the agenda for the day.</p><p>And yet Barbara couldn’t stop thinking about that letter from the insistent fan. When it hit the point that she’d been staring at her inbox for over thirty minutes, she sighed and pulled out her phone. Plugging in her earbuds, she searched up<em> Good Morning From Hell </em> and put on the first episode. A catchy bass track began to play, and she leaned back into her chair.</p><p>It was a good thing she had, or she might have fallen over.</p><p><em> Good morning from Hell! Welcome to Hell’s first podcast. I’m Chris Demarais, and I died recently. </em> She hastily paused the video as she leaned forward, bracing herself against her desk as she dropped her phone into her lap. She could hardly think as her thoughts ran a mile a minute. This… this couldn’t have been real, could it? Surely… surely this was all fake, all just pre-recorded or some impersonator; there had to be <em> some </em> logical explanation.</p><p>But sure enough, when she checked the date, it was posted on October 10th, the day after Chris had died. She wrapped herself in her arms as she tilted her gaze towards a framed photo of RT Core from shortly before his death. What the hell does she do now? If she tells everyone, it would mess them all up, but if she doesn’t, what kind of person would that make her? Surely she had to tell <em> somebody </em>.</p><p>Barbara hadn’t even realized she was crying until she began to feel the warm tears landing on her leggings. Conveniently, this was the same time that Blaine walked in. “Hey, Barb, I wanted to talk to you about today’s Always Open— Holy shit, are you okay?” He ran to her side, kneeling beside her.</p><p>“I… I…,” she choked out between sobs. “Blaine, I- I found something, and it- it changes everything. I- I don’t want to hide it from you, not if you want to see it, but I- I don’t know how you’ll react either.” She stared at her coworker as he looked back, searching her eyes for any idea of what she might be talking about. Finally, he looked at the ground, closing his eyes as he let out a slow breath.</p><p>“What- what you found... it's a big deal, isn’t it?” he asked eventually, looking back up. She nodded slightly, and he closed his eyes again before nodding. “Alright. I- I don’t know what you’re about to show me, but something's telling me that I need to know what it is. If I don’t like what I’m about to see, that’s on me.” She hesitated for a second before nodding again in understanding. Shakily, she passed her phone over to Blaine, unplugging the headphones as she restarted the podcast. That same damn tune played again, and Barb’s body was wracked with another silent sob as her dead friend’s voice rang out in her office.</p><p>“Holy shit,” he gasped, falling into a sitting position as he stared at the phone in disbelief. He was still as a statue, but tears were beginning to roll down his cheeks too as he listened to Clayon introduce himself. “He… He’s alive…?” he asked then, voice tinged with reluctant hope as he looked up at his friend.</p><p>Barb took a breath, composing herself as she looked back at him. “I… I don’t know. He couldn’t possibly be in Hell, could he? I mean, it's Chris, for God's sake... But he wouldn’t have just abandoned us, either, I…” She stopped, racking her brain for a possible explanation.</p><p>“We were all at the funeral,” he whispered then, almost so faint that she could hardly hear him.</p><p>“We were all at the funeral,” she echoed, and she pulled herself out of her seat to sit beside Blaine. They leaned against the wall and ended up listening to every single episode out so far. Some of the episodes were funny, and they both smiled every time they heard Chris’ laugh, but it was clear that learning about the hardships he had endured in Hell had caused them both more pain than they would have liked.</p><p>They were listening to the most recent episode, awaiting an interaction with one Detective Roger Davis, when Chris began to read some reviews of the podcast. Clayton made a one-off joke about that being the only way Chris could communicate with his living relatives, and Blaine and Barb’s heads snapped towards each other in synchronization. They had been sitting in her office for hours by this point, but neither of them had ever felt the need to move. She had simply texted Trevor to head home without her, promising she’d catch a ride with Blaine. And now, well, it seemed that all of these hours spent sitting on her floor had paid off as she opened her phone. Barb tapped on the mail app and created a new message addressed to goodmorningfromhell@hotmail.com. However, when she was done, she found herself staring at the blinking text cursor, unsure of what to say or how to say it. Reaching out to her dead friend… this was a big deal. It hardly made sense, and she couldn’t even begin to formulate the right words to say.</p><p>Blaine made a gesture as if to ask for her phone, and she passed it to him. He took a breath before writing a brief message. Barb craned her head to see what he was typing, but she couldn’t tell, so instead she just laid back, staring blankly at the ceiling until Blaine passed the phone back.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> Chris, </em>
</p><p>
  <em> Is this you? Is this really you? Are you really in Hell? </em>
</p><p>
  <em> We don’t know why you died either. But know we’re sorry. We’re so, so sorry, and we all love and miss you. </em>
</p><p>
  <em> Blaine and Barbara </em>
</p><p> </p><p>Barb hadn’t meant to, but she was crying again. This e-mail wasn’t much, but it was a start. It drove her insane that she wouldn’t hear his response for another three days, but she’d be damned if she wasn’t going to do everything in her power to reach out to Chris. She turned to Blaine, nodding resolutely, and he nodded back before pressing send.</p><p>Now all they had to do was wait.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hey everyone! Thanks for checking out this story; I really appreciate it. This is my first fic for RT Core, so any advice you might have on how to better write them would be greatly appreciated.<br/>Also, I tried my best to find out who was and wasn't comfortable with being in fan fiction, but I couldn't find much on it. If you know that any of the people in this story don't want to be written about, please comment down below and I'll remove them quickly. Keep in mind that there will be no ships between people that aren't dating in real life.<br/>Any and all feedback would be greatly appreciated it, since I don't normally write multi-chapter fics either. We'll see how this goes. Have a great day, and hail Clayton!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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